Erik is a baseball fan who has been attending baseball games and snagging baseballs regularly since 2008.

Ballhawk Spring Training?

Opening Day is just around the corner. Tomorrow we’ll flip our calendar to February and be just two months away from the glorious month of April, which brings about warmer weather, longer days and most importantly baseball.

Some of you that read this blog are ballhawks. Others of you are simply baseball fans. What do you do in the offseason to stay busy? For you ballhawks, how do you prepare yourself for the coming season? Do you glove trick balls from your second story window, while your neighbors stare in bewilderment? Do you head to the local high school football field and have a friend hit fly balls at you while you’re in the bleachers as track passerbys give you a what-the-hell face? Do you watch repeats of MLB games on MLBtv all winter?

I don’t do any of that stuff, but I am doing some training.

In 2011, I saw my statistics plummet. My total balls dropped from 544 in 2010 to 422 in 2011. I also saw my balls per game drop from 6.18 to 5.41. More alarmingly my batted balls dropped from 260 in 2010 to 178 in 2011. I’d like to bounce back in 2012.

I thought that my weight had something to do with the drop off. (I’ll look more into those stats soon in a future entry.) In 2010 I weighed 196 lbs and was very lean, ripped and muscular, from hours and hours at the gym.
I pretty much stopped working out at the end of the 2010 season and began gaining weight. In June 2011 I weighed around 230. When I went to a high school graduation, I couldn’t even fit into my suit pants.

On July 1 last year, I started lifting weights again. However, I kept gaining weight. On January 1, 2012 I weighed 250 lbs. A lot of it is muscle, but there’s fat too.

I started to worry that if I didn’t reverse the trend that I would end up around 300 lbs again, like on January 1 2009:
And I did not want that.

So for the past two months I’ve been hitting the gym hard core. I lift every other day, and run on the days opposite my lifting days. I’m up to running 4 miles every other day in an effort to get in shape for the ballhawking season.
The running is pretty monotonous, but sometimes there’s something good on.
Since December 1st, I’ve been to the gym 60 of the last 62 days, including 37 consecutive days since Christmas. I’ve lost 8 pounds in the month of January, so that’s good. I’d like to be down to about 225-230 by the time opening day rolls around. I only stay for about an hour because the rest of my time I’d like to spend at home with this cutie:
and this hottie:
(Amy pic)

So what have you diehard baseball fans been up to this offseason? Are you getting ready to the upcoming season?

Let me know to enter this contest, and remember, only 65 more days until Opening Day.

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

2 Comments

Weight is a weird thing. At least I am finally starting to gain a little. Obviously my season is dicey, but I start with my trainer next week and I am excited about that. Hopefully I will get to see you on April 5th.

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.